Toby wrote:The Tree goes up in our house around a week or so before. Part of me goes a bit swivel-eyed when I see any decorations out before then if I'm honest.

My brother-in-law does the whole tree up and everything on Dec 1st every year and every year the tree is forlorn and sagging by the 25th.

There is something in the whole "Oh do you remember these?" when you get the decorations box down from the loft. I put cinnamon sticks and cloves in it so that every year it smells like Christmas when I get it. We have loads of poncey glass ones and disgustingly tasteful ones that have accumulated over the years as you might imagine. I try to buy the odd kitsch one like a Burger in a Bun or something, but somehow they never make it to the tree..

This will likely be the last Christmas spent in my parents' house as my mom will be selling it next year and moving in with my sister on her farm. It's not that big a deal, come to think of it, because I can't remember the last time we did Christmas there - some time before my dad passed away in 2014 I think. Anyway, I enjoy this time of year, but don't really do too much in the way of "Christmassy stuff". I'll put some coloured lights on a shrub in our front yard this weekend and burn some pine-scented candles, but that's about it. The only gift I'm giving is a bottle of scotch to my brother-in-law (although I suspect I'll get something for the missus and the doggie, too). I like the coziness of the drawn in nights, just sitting around doing nothing, having a few drinks and some food, and I'm really looking forward to not having to go to work for two weeks.

I love Christmas, and we've managed over the last few years to evolve a method of doing it our way. Neither CatnHat nor I have large families, so we don't have lots of people we feel obligated to go and see. We're going to the north east to see my parents and my sister, her boyfriend and kids etc the weekend of the 16th & 17th, and then going to CatnHat's folks on Friday the 22nd, so we'll be home on Christmas Eve.

Our plan from then on is to meet some friends for drinks in the pub in the late afternoon, as we usually do, and then wander home and lock the front door for the next two days. On Christmas Day and Boxing Day we'll have lie ins, eat nice food and drink good booze, read, do jigsaws, chat, and watch good DVDs or stuff on Netflix.

Apart from reading The Spectator Christmas issue, I am not to bother with any news media or normal TV the whole time.

Jeff K wrote:Nick's still the man! No one has been as consistent as he has been over such a long period of time.

Got to visit family in Halifax the week before, have a Christmas dinner, go to a Christmas event, exchange pressies etc.Travel back to Bournemouth, and do it all again, a week later, but for real this time!

I enjoy the over-indulgence.I enjoy the traditions.Nativity plays, carols etc

I love presents-giving and receiving.I like the bonhomie that goes with it, whether its out and about, or at work.

Since Noel Edmonds stopeed doing the Christmas morning telly I don't have the TV on. I'd rather watch a Spiderman film.

Heyyyy!

"Fonz clearly has no fucks to give. I like the cut of his Cupicidal gib."

Copehead wrote:I will be on board a Japanese vessel so I am not sure how far they go with Christmas once they have put up the crucified Santa Claus decorations

The Japanese don't really bother much with Christmas and is a reason I often go there over the holiday period. Strangely it actually feels more festive as you have the Christmas weather and scenery - snow covered fir trees and snowy mountains - but none of the commercialism and that suits me just fine.

I love Christmas, there's just something in the air. We go to mum and dads for lunch and beers then at night to a family friends for a light dinner, pool, card games and more beer. This is the day I've become accustomed to and I love it so. However, I will probably be in NZ next year to give my wife one with her parents, problem is they wouldn't know a celebration if it kicked them in the genitals.

Wadesmith wrote:Why is it that when there's a 'What do you think of this?' post, it's always absolute cobblers?

sloopjohnc wrote:[ Although, I'd like to forget how long it took me to put together all the toys after the kids opened them.

My son has requested the Lego Millennium Falcon and it has over a thousand pieces. I suspect it'll probably take around 4 hours or so to construct.

This gives me an excuse not to talk to anyone during that time.

I used to spend all Christmas building lego stuff for my daughters (plus we'd get the lego advent calendar too). I loved it. They're too old now alas

One Christmas when my (half) brothers were in their early teens they got a Tamiya RC car each which needed to be built. I spent days constructing their complex 4wd transmissions - and then rebuilding them when I noticed the wheels were all turning in different directions...

We went up to stay for easter and I asked if the cars were still in one piece only to be told they's swapped them for a Nintendo Bloody kids!

I don't love or hate Xmas. There is a definite feeling in the air though, and that can be quite nice at times. When I was in my twenties I was more inclined to disregard it all together, but it is good getting together with a few old friends I don't have much time to hang with during the year. And I enjoy buying their kids gifts. So yeah, I guess I'm becoming a regular Xmas loon.

We'll have to go to a couple of family dos with copious meals and conflicting emotions - my brother's cancer has come back (thyroid this time) and I don't think he has the stamina to put up another fight. My 16-months-old grand-nieces are cute, but I find it hard to connect (twins conceived with ART, they were premature and have already had more operations than my own household combined). And our own lil' Neigemonette is now 27 and currently travelling around Colombia.

I really miss the warm and cosy family christmases we had when my parents were still alive.

My Christmas will be the usual extended-family get-together on Christmas Eve and the usual extended-family get-together on Christmas Day. No-one knows why it happens twice. The Christmas Day event is a mobile happening and fortunately this year it’s happening in my brother-in-law’s house just across the compound so there will be no travelling involved, for us. I don’t care for the Christmas Eve food (boiled cod boiled potatoes boiled onion boiled carrot boiled egg boiled cabbage – it’s like that Human League song) but the next day it’s turkey, and good.

We’ve invited this kid who works with my son to come and have Christmas with us as he has no money to get back to St Petersburg. He might be Jesus after all – I will ply him with vodka in an attempt to find out.

On Christmas Day at some point I’ll play Big Star’s Jesus Christ loud enough to shake the birds out of the trees. It’s my It’s a Wonderful Life! But quicker and more convenient.

I love it all, but it's not really the same now that everyone is getting older, which is part of the melancholy of the season, I suppose.

We go to the UK every other year for Christmas. We were there last year, so this year it's the Texas World Tour. For TXMAS, much is dictated by my paternal family's Christmas arrangements. That family used to do XMAS evening at my parents house, and did that for decades until my parents split up. Now it rotates between my Dad and his two brothers. It's a big gathering with dozens of people. Anyway, the point is, this year it's in Dallas, which is about 200 miles away. So we spend the early afternoon driving and the morning of Boxing Day driving back. Which is kind of a drag. And as soon as we figure out how to be in the UK those years my family is gathering in Fucking Dallas, they'll switch it up. It also means that we miss my maternal family's gathering, which occurs midday, about 30 miles south of here (which is not the way to Dallas). I'm looking forward to seeing my family, but I'm more looking forward to the week that follows. Boxing Day we'll have a quiet, British style dinner so Min can enjoy something more like what she's used to. Then we'll have some friends over later in the week. It all ends on Epiphany weekend, when we'll gather at y dad's with my brother, step-sisters, and step-nieces and nephews. Which leads directly into Min's Birthday Pandemonium.

I cannot stand this time of year. There is not one thing I enjoy about it - the kitsch sentimentality, the forced jollity, the crap TV, the inability to go anywhere without hearing the worst pop music ever made, the fact that it now all starts in September. I just want it all to end. Right now.

It's typical in the semiconductor industry, which I'm tangentially part of, that companies shut down during Xmas. I have the week before off so I'm trying to see people with the kids for lunches. My brother has kinda taken over the role of my parents for Xmas eve, but his kids are always in musical stuff so it's kinda put the kibosh on Xmas eve, which is kinda disappointing.

On Xmas eve day, I'm taking the kids to Xmas in the Park in San Jose and we'll go out to lunch, we'll go over to my brother's for a little get together, chill and then Xmas Eve dinner at my place. On Xmas Day, we'll go over late to my ex brother and sister-in-law's where we'll have dinner and hand out presents.

the masked man wrote:I cannot stand this time of year. There is not one thing I enjoy about it - the kitsch sentimentality, the forced jollity, the crap TV, the inability to go anywhere without hearing the worst pop music ever made, the fact that it now all starts in September. I just want it all to end. Right now.